Losing Sight
by Takari-san
Summary: HOROTAMAO! Sometimes we focus too much on the bad things of life that we don't get to see the bigger picture; that we are losing sight, not being able to see all the good things in life, that there's always a second chance…


**Losing Sight**

**Pairing: Horo/Tamao**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Shaman King.**

**Note: Another Horo/Tamao made by me... It is my entry to the 'Inked' contest for Horo/Tamao category. Enjoy, the idea of the story is gotten from an inspirational book. They're basically made all of the same age here and about 16… and I think Tamao's quite OOC but I hope you can bear with it…**

_Sometimes we focus too much on the bad things of life that we don't get to see the bigger picture; that we are losing sight, not being able to see all the good things in life, that there's always a second chance…_

*Horo's POV*

"Wah! You lost your first match of the Shaman Fight! You can't afford to lose or else… or else…" Pirika sobbed endlessly, blaming and cursing Yoh every moment for beating me in our match earlier.

"Calm down Pirika… it's alright stop being down…" I said grinning.

"How can you be so happy when you risked losing our dream?" Pirika said in between sobs.

"Don't you remember what oji-san told us before he died? Stop focusing on such small problems, take a step back and look at all the accomplishments you've gotten and blessings you got… and feel lucky. I'll try harder next battle, okay?" I grinned.

She was instantly silenced but soon a light bulb popped out of nowhere…

"If that's so, then be ready for fiercer training!" Pirika exclaimed laughing like a maniac.

*******

That was three years ago, let's focus more on now…

On my way back from visiting Yoh, I was in a mountain road about to go back to my village, which meant I hitchhiked quite a lot of times already. Pirika didn't accompany me this time; she was sick and our parents are taking care of her right now... Sadly I was alone and in the middle of nowhere...

I decided that I would go back home as quickly as possible so I began running like a maniac. No one would see me anyway. Soon however, I got tired since I used up most of my energy, of all the days to forget my snowboard at Yoh's house. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea... now even my body is aching... and sad to say my stomach is complaining...

Walking slowly this time, I was a turtle compared to the cheetah I was a while ago... I tried my best to ignore my stomach that was screaming in complaint at me.

I was reaching my destination... just a few more hours to go (?)... Panting, as I was about to reach the top of the mountain, my mind was now making me realize I still have to go downhill. I believe I won't be able to reach home anymore... my stomach was complaining too much. Reaching the top finally; I was shocked to find a little food stand there...

'That wasn't there the last time I went here...' I noted but my stomach got the better of me and forced me to go right in.

Entering the small food stand I found one customer and an old lady in a verdant kimono chatting with her. 

'The old lady must be the caretaker of this place...' I noted taking a seat beside the customer, I checked my wallet for some money... it was as if the gods blessed me... I wasn't broke.

"May I help you young man?" the old woman turned at me, it was then I noticed that she was standing up on a barrel to be with eye-level with us...

"Uh... hai..." I replied, "A sandwich and soda please..." I said looking at the menu which was hammered to the counter.

"Hai... that would be insert normal price of food yen please..." the old lady.

"Hai..." I said giving her the money she needed.

Watching as the old woman got some food from who knows where; I soon found my eyes wandering around the room, soon to land on the other customer beside me. She was watching me weirdly; it was as if I know her... I dug through my mind and finally remembered the prophetess from Patch Village, the one that was infatuated with Yoh. Why would she be here, though?

I looked at her again, she had the pink hair, and just how many people in the world have pink hair anyway? She also had the pink eyes, white shirt and black pants... Wait a minute that's her! Oops...

"You're Tamao Tamamura, right?" I asked wondering what she'll do if I got her name incorrectly.

"H-Hai... Horo Horo-san...?" she said nervously, not even sure of my name.

"Don't you know me?" I grinned teasingly totally oblivious to the fact that she'd react so nervously.

"I-Iie... Gomen..." she said right away bowing her head up and down continuously, asking for forgiveness to what she "thought" she done.

"Don't worry about it... I was just kidding." I sweatdropped trying to calm her down but it looked as if he was failing miserably.

"Here's your food sir..." the old woman appeared a few moments later with the food I ordered.

"Hai... arigato..." I said accepting the food, taking it and faced Tamao again finding her to be calmed down.

"Nice to know you calmed down..." I laughed lightly.

"Gomen... I tend to be very nervous at times..." she blushed embarrassedly. She is kawaii... what am I thinking? 'She should not be my victim of my being a pervert' I chanted silently...

"I noticed that..." I grinned.

"Gomen..." she repeated her odd routine.

"Loosen up for a while..." I patted her head, "I personally don't know what you did for you to apologize."

"Loosen up?" she asked apparently confused.

"Yeah, you're a bit too uptight, not in a bad way mind you..." I grinned knowing that if I didn't add the last part, she would start getting nervous again... or maybe she is now...

"I guess I am but I was brought up that way..." she replied.

"You've been raised to be nervous?" I looked at her oddly.

"Iie... as far as I could remember I was a wannabe prophetess when I was young and until now. I couldn't take the training and always was weak and vulnerable..." Tamao narrated and I looked at her sympathetically.

"You're not a wannabe prophetess... you're great!" I exclaimed. It was a white lie. I never saw her foretell anything but to make her feel better, I feel like I have to but I don't know why.

"You never even saw me predict anything..." she said looking at me.

"Manta and Ryu told me about the time you predicted about a long one and short one who was going to attack Yoh..." I said spontaneously remembering what Ryu and Manta told me about the prophetess attacking them.

"I made a mistake and though it was Manta-san and Ryu-san..." she said looking down at the ground.

"Everyone makes mistakes; you still got it correct, right? Two members of the Lily 5 was the one who attacked but one was still tall and one short..." I replied remembering Millie and Sally who was two of the companions of their leader, Sharona who seemed to have few of the screws in her head loose.

"I almost hurt Ryu-san and Manta-san, Yoh-sama was only very kind; that's why he forgave me." Tamao said softly.

"I agree Yoh's really kind but he didn't forgive you because of that. Heck, you don't even have to apologize!" I said acting as if I was there but really the truth was I was celebrating my win against my third opponent of the Shaman Fight with Pirika.

"You weren't even there, how would you know?" she asked confused.

"I'm good friends with Yoh, he's a kind man and according to what I've heard, you just made a simple mistake; everyone makes mistakes..." I noted.

"Arigato..." she murmured.

"What for?" asked a confused me.

"You made me have a little confidence in myself..." Tamao smiled.

"Just a little, huh? That's too bad." I smirked at her.

"Why is that?" she asked.

"I was hoping you'd be really confident but then again a few minutes of talk can't do that, right?" I grinned.

"I guess so..." she replied.

I had a little time to eat my food because of the sudden pause of silence they had. Chomping down quickly, it only took me a few minutes to finish my food all the time.

"Don't you think you're eating too fast?" asked Tamao, watching in amazement as I ate my food as if I was drinking water.

"Mrfff mphh..." I replied, too much food in my mouth.

"Kururu!" my power spirit suddenly appeared apparently agreeing with Tamao about my eating habits.

"Kururu is a very cute genie..." Tamao noted as the little genie smiled.

"Yes, she is... but she looks so much like Manta, it sometimes made me wonder if Manta was a kuropokuru..." I said after finally swallowing my food.

"That's mean..." Tamao noted, chuckling lightly.

"Why are you laughing then?" I asked joining her in the light laughter, "Tamao..." I said in a serious tone of voice after the laughter.

"H-Horo Horo-san?" she replied nervously.

"You're still to nervous, loosen up!" I laughed.

"Eh?" she said obviously confused.

"You're cute when confused, do you know that?" I said jokingly when she suddenly looked away... oops... did I do something wrong? Gee... I'm never good with women.

"The only person whoever thought of me as an equal was..." Tamao murmured sadly, "Yoh-sama."

"Gomen... even my utterly cute and handsome body makes mistakes..." I kidded trying to lighten up the subject but was failing miserably...

"Am I really that unlikable?" Tamao asked me.

"Of course not! I mean we've only met each other, I mean really met each other a few minutes ago and I like you..." I said wishing for the best.

"You're just saying that to make me feel better like everyone else does..." she said sadly.

"If you live by that prospective, you'll never get anything done… look at me, I have the confidence to say to the world I'm the most handsome guy there is and look at me…" I said proudly.

"A pervert, maniac and weirdo?" she looked at me.

"Hey! Who told you that?" I frowned.

"That's what Anna-sama said…" she noted, "Is she wrong?"

"Of course! I'm a handsome, smart, cunning and woman-magnet Ainu tribes boy, HORO HORO!" I said defensively.

"Maybe she's right…" she muttered.

"I thought you were a shy and kind!" I exclaimed.

"I'm just telling the truth…" she commented.

"Truth? You can't handle the truth!" I exclaimed, my head enlarging and my eyes bulging trying to scare her a bit. Typical anime character attitude… he, he…

"Horo Horo-san…?" Tamao sweatdropped, "You're scaring the old woman that owns this place…" she said pointing to the old man whose eyes were bulging out in shock.

"Eh… Oh… I see…" I replied softer than a while ago, "You see what I was trying to say, no matter how hard it is to believe it is that you should have a little more confidence in your self."

"What is there for me to be confident or proud about? I'm bad at everything, I even fall in love with someone I can't attain!" she exclaimed, tears threatening to fall.

"Shush…" I whispered covering her mouth with my finger, "Don't ever say that, everyone has something positive about them… for me it's being handsome, smart, cunning, a woman-magnet and _humble_, and if you don't know it yet or you can't believe it it'll show itself to you sometime…" 

"I don't even have anything good about me, no one cares much for me!" shouted the pink haired girl.

"Look… do you see this paper?" I said showing her a piece of paper with nothing written on it I got from my pocket.

She just nodded, biting her lip.

I took a pen from my pocket and marked the paper with a dot, a small but evident dot, "What do you see?" I asked her.

"A dot…" she replied weakly.

"What else do you see?" I urged her to answer.

"A dot…" she repeated.

"Is that you can see?" I asked her and she nodded.

"You see a lot of people is like that…" I began…

"What are you talking about?" she silently murmured.

"All they can see is the dot but you forgot the most important thing… the paper." I said.

"What has that got to do with what we were talking about a while ago?" she asked confused.

"It's a lot like life, most people just look at the bad things in life like small problems like the dot that they don't notice the good things in life or all others. I advice you take a step back and look at the bigger picture… You're cute. You're smart. You're friendly and great in cooking. Now, with all that who can you not be special? Tell me and I'll give you a kiss without you turning into a red beet."

"Eh!??!" she blushed furiously.

"You can't even stop blushing with mention of me kissing you…" grinned a cheery me.

"Arigato…" she blushed.

"It's nothing… my granddad told me that when I was young, that's why I have a positive outlook in life." I grinned.

"Really, you're granddad seems like a great person then… I would love to meet him…" Tamao smiled.

"Sadly, that can't be, he passed away… he told me that just before he did. Living in the mountains, there's not much medical facilities that his disease couldn't be cured." I said.

"Gomen…" Tamao looked down sadly.

"Iie… past is past, now is now. I'm just glad I know he lived a good life, though Pirika couldn't accept that fact as fast as I did, she did sooner or later." I replied kissing her on the cheek.

"W-What was that for?" Tamao said her face turning crimson and her eyes all twirly, steam coming out of her.

"I'd said I'll kiss you right?" I grinned.

"What are you talking about?" she asked still red.

"I said I'll kiss you without turning into a red beet if you were able to say something… Oh, did I forget to tell you that if you couldn't I'd kiss you with you turning into a red beet?" I smirked.

"HORO!" Tamao said punching me.

"Finally got some spunk, eh?" I laughed.

"I guess…" Tamao joined him in the laughter.

*******

Taking one first step I know would change my life forever; I entered the cursed gates of High School. Yoh, Ren and I entered those wretched gates half-asleep. Taking one deep yawn, I stretched and soon asked Yoh…

"What's your first class Yoh?" I asked curiously looking at the paper with my classes on it.

"Japanese History…" Yoh yawned.

"Darn, I got Algebra… how about you Ren?" I asked the grumpy looking Tao. I must note to myself that Ren is not safe when sleepy.

"Hn… Japanese." Ren muttered.

"Okay then, see you at break-time…" I waved away at them.

"See you…" Yoh said sleepily and Ren merely grunted when I suddenly heard Yoh shouting so I turned around to find Anna. I turned back to the direction I was going to right away.

Arriving at my classroom, about to open the door when a familiar pink-haired girl grabbed the door at the same time…

"Tamao?"

"Horo Horo-san?"

"I haven't seen you till yesterday… I missed you…" I grinned lopsidedly.

"Sure…" Tamao said sarcastically.

"I did, especially those cookies you make." I grinned.

"I bet…" Tamao replied.

"I didn't know we were in the same class…" Horo grinned.

"Yeah…" she smiled back as we entered the classroom.

Just as we entered the room, right in front of the class I kissed her out of nowhere in the lips as if marking to the whole room that Tamao is my girl, DON'T TOUCH, GO NEAR OR ANYTHING THAT'LL GET ME MAD. My classmates' eyes were bulging; some, who thought of courting Tamao looked disappointed; Anna was sitting there quietly, wait a second Anna!?! Tamao on the other hand was red as a beet.

"That'll teach them to lay their eyes on my girl…" I laughed playfully.

"Nobody ever told you public display of affection was embarrassing, huh?" Tamao smiled, a bit more calmed down.

"Nah… I always thought it was good." I grinned as my koi (loved one) laughed lightly.

"We're getting weird stares from our classmates… koi." Tamao said shyly.

"No matter what I do you'll always be shy, huh? Be different! Be yourself!" I exclaimed.

"Are you talking about the Sprite commercial?" Tamao said as she took a seat beside Anna.

"Mmm… Sprite…" I grinned as Anna glared at me.

"You're lucky the teacher wasn't here…" she noted.

"I guess." I grinned as one guy was about to approach Anna…

"I advice you don't… she's fiercer than a lion and is taken by a pal of mine…" I said looking at the boy who seemed to be asking Anna out before she punched me out of my chair and onto the wall, I was grinning though.

As I look at my life now, I would say what granddad said helped a lot, not only in my attitude and confidence but also getting the girl of my dreams.

**Owari******


End file.
